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Engine sputters under load

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Old Jan 16, 2004 | 01:13 PM
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Engine sputters under load

I bought a 84 LTD that sat in a field for a few years. I replaced the fuel pump, inline filter, and cleaned out the tank but not real good. The engine idles smooth. Accelerating slowly it runs good. With hard acceleration it sputters. And higher than 30 mph it sputters. When I let off the gas it quits sputtering. After driving a few minutes the engine light comes on. This car is a Crown Vic with a CFI fuel system. Does anybody have any ideas.
 
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Old Jan 17, 2004 | 02:23 AM
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Might change the fuel filter again, sounds like fuel starvation. You might want to pull the codes, too.
 
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Old Jan 17, 2004 | 05:48 AM
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Sounds like a misfire to me, have you checked the ignition system? Dist. cap, rotor, wires, plugs? If it was in a field for a few years, there could be buildups on the cap and rotor terminals causing crappy current flow. What does the oil pressure do under high and low loads?

I had a chevy car once which sat in the driveway among a lot of brush... damn mice got in there and ate up the spark plug wires. I went to start it one day and I heard all this sparking under the hood, and it wouldnt start!!
 
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Old Jan 17, 2004 | 10:36 AM
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I agree w/ 'Siphor84',Sounds like a firing problem.
check cap, rotor,wires & plugs..
 
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Old Jan 17, 2004 | 10:44 AM
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the dist advance might be frozen from sitting and condensation as it sounds like you're not getting enough advance, if it was bad wires it would still rev but miss at the same time.
 
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Old Jan 17, 2004 | 12:06 PM
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I don't have an oil pressure guage so I don't really know what the pressure does under load. I haven't looked inside the distributor yet but I will. It doesn't feel like a vacuum advance problem because it don't bog down when you put your foot in it. It dont seem like a bad plug or wire becuase it would have to be a few bad wires that don't miss during idle. I will check the wires and plugs. It sputters really rough with the RPMs up under load. I can't figgure if it is the fuel or the electronics. I'm open to all suggestions.
 
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Old Jan 17, 2004 | 12:13 PM
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Check the firing order, too.
 
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Old Jan 18, 2004 | 10:27 AM
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I wasn't thinking vacuum adv. but rather mech.adv inside the dist.
 
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Old Jan 20, 2004 | 01:09 AM
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Yep, I understood machanical advance. That just made me think of vacuum advance. Which I didn't check either. I can't tell the difference when I'm driving. I'm going to check all suggestions when I get back to the car. It's at my brother-in-laws house, 70 miles away.
 
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Old Jan 20, 2004 | 11:39 AM
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Im assuming it has a carb. Sputtering under load may be plugged jets. If it is carborated try running some injector cleaner through. You can run injector cleaner in a carb but NOT carb cleaner with injectors. If this turns out to help tear down the carb and clean it.
Check the air filter too, every little bit helps :-)
Good luck
 
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Old Jan 21, 2004 | 11:05 AM
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It has central fuel injection (CFI) system. Two injectors in a throttle body that looks like a carb. I don't know how long Ford used this system? I already put carb cleaner through it. Did I mess up?
 
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Old Jan 21, 2004 | 04:44 PM
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Well, I was told that if you run a carborator cleaner through an engine with injectors, then the carborater cleaner can ruin the injectors because of the materials they are made with. I beleive it causes the seals in the injectors to deteriorate. Your best bet is to stick with injector cleaner for anything that runs injectors. Can anyone confirm this? I was told by a guy that works at an automotive parts store, but he might have been full of it- I cant say for sure.
 
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